Planet

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the astronomical object. For other uses, see Planet (disambiguation).

The eight planets of the Solar System

The terrestrial planets

Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars

The giant planets

Jupiter and Saturn (gas giants)
Uranus and Neptune (ice giants)

Shown in order from the Sun and in true

color. Sizes are not to scale.

A planet is an astronomical object orbiting a star or stellar remnant that

is massive enough to be rounded by its own gravity,

is not massive enough to cause thermonuclear fusion, and

has cleared its neighbouring region of planetesimals.[a][1][2]

The term planet is ancient, with ties to history, astrology, science, mythology, and religion.
Several planets in the Solar System can be seen with the naked eye. These were regarded by
many early cultures as divine, or as emissaries of deities. As scientific knowledge advanced,
human perception of the planets changed, incorporating a number of disparate objects. In
2006, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) officially adopted a resolution defining
planets within the Solar System. This definition is controversial because it excludes many
objects of planetary mass based on where or what they orbit. Although eight of the planetary
bodies discovered before 1950 remain "planets" under the modern definition, some celestial
bodies, such as Ceres, Pallas, Juno and Vesta (each an object in the solar asteroid belt), and
Pluto (the first trans-Neptunian object discovered), that were once considered planets by the
scientific community, are no longer viewed as such.
The planets were thought by Ptolemy to orbit Earth in deferent and epicycle motions.
Although the idea that the planets orbited the Sun had been suggested many times, it was not
until the 17th century that this view was supported by evidence from the first telescopic
astronomical observations, performed by Galileo Galilei. By careful analysis of the
observation data, Johannes Kepler found the planets' orbits were not circular but elliptical. As
observational tools improved, astronomers saw that, like Earth, the planets rotated around
tilted axes, and some shared such features as ice caps and seasons. Since the dawn of the
Space Age, close observation by space probes has found that Earth and the other planets share
characteristics such as volcanism, hurricanes, tectonics, and even hydrology.
Planets are generally divided into two main types: large low-density giant planets, and smaller
rocky terrestrials. Under IAU definitions, there are eight planets in the Solar System. In order
of increasing distance from the Sun, they are the four terrestrials, Mercury, Venus, Earth, and
Mars, then the four giant planets, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Six of the planets are
orbited by one or more natural satellites.
More than two thousand planets around other stars ("extrasolar planets" or "exoplanets") have
been discovered in the Milky Way. As of 20 June 2016, 3,437 known extrasolar planets in
2,571 planetary systems (including 585 multiple planetary systems), ranging in size from just
above the size of the Moon to gas giants about twice as large as Jupiter have been discovered,
out of which more than 100 planets are the same size as Earth, nine of which are at the same
relative distance from their star as Earth from the Sun, i.e. in the habitable zone.[3][4] On
December 20, 2011, the Kepler Space Telescope team reported the discovery of the first
Earth-sized extrasolar planets, Kepler-20e[5] and Kepler-20f,[6] orbiting a Sun-like star, Kepler20.[7][8][9] A 2012 study, analyzing gravitational microlensing data, estimates an average of at
least 1.6 bound planets for every star in the Milky Way.[10] Around one in five Sun-like[b] stars
is thought to have an Earth-sized[c] planet in its habitable[d] zone.

Contents

1 History
o

1.1 Babylon

1.2 Greco-Roman astronomy

1.3 India

1.4 Medieval Muslim astronomy

1.5 European Renaissance

1.6 19th century

1.7 20th century

1.8 21st century

1.8.1 Extrasolar planets

1.8.2 2006 IAU definition of planet

1.9 Objects formerly considered planets

2 Mythology and naming

3 Formation

4 Solar System
o

4.1 Planetary attributes

5 Exoplanets

6 Planetary-mass objects

6.1 Rogue planets

6.2 Sub-brown dwarfs

6.3 Former stars

6.4 Satellite planets and belt planets

6.5 Captured planets

7 Attributes
o

7.1 Dynamic characteristics

7.1.1 Orbit

7.1.2 Axial tilt

7.1.3 Rotation

7.1.4 Orbital clearing

7.2 Physical characteristics

7.2.1 Mass

7.2.2 Internal differentiation

7.2.3 Atmosphere

7.2.4 Magnetosphere

7.3 Secondary characteristics

8 See also

9 Notes

10 References

11 External links

History
Further information: History of astronomy, Definition of planet, and Timeline of Solar System
astronomy

Printed rendition of a geocentric cosmological model from Cosmographia, Antwerp, 1539

The word "planet" derives from the Ancient Greek astr plants, or
plns astr, which means "wandering star,"[11] and originally referred to those objects

in the night sky that moved relative to one another, as opposed to the "fixed stars", which
maintained a constant relative position in the sky.[12]
The idea of planets has evolved over its history, from the divine lights of antiquity to the
earthly objects of the scientific age. The concept has expanded to include worlds not only in
the Solar System, but in hundreds of other extrasolar systems. The ambiguities inherent in
defining planets have led to much scientific controversy.
The five classical planets, being visible to the naked eye, have been known since ancient
times and have had a significant impact on mythology, religious cosmology, and ancient
astronomy. In ancient times, astronomers noted how certain lights moved across the sky in
relation to the other stars. Ancient Greeks called these lights (plantes
asteres, "wandering stars") or simply (plantai, "wanderers"),[13] from which today's
word "planet" was derived.[14][15] In ancient Greece, China, Babylon, and indeed all premodern civilizations,[16][17] it was almost universally believed that Earth was the center of the
Universe and that all the "planets" circled Earth. The reasons for this perception were that
stars and planets appeared to revolve around Earth each day[18] and the apparently commonsense perceptions that Earth was solid and stable and that it was not moving but at rest.

Babylon
Main article: Babylonian astronomy
The first civilization known to have a functional theory of the planets were the Babylonians,
who lived in Mesopotamia in the first and second millennia BC. The oldest surviving
planetary astronomical text is the Babylonian Venus tablet of Ammisaduqa, a 7th-century BC
copy of a list of observations of the motions of the planet Venus, that probably dates as early
as the second millennium BC.[19] The MUL.APIN is a pair of cuneiform tablets dating from
the 7th century BC that lays out the motions of the Sun, Moon and planets over the course of
the year.[20] The Babylonian astrologers also laid the foundations of what would eventually
become Western astrology.[21] The Enuma anu enlil, written during the Neo-Assyrian period in
the 7th century BC,[22] comprises a list of omens and their relationships with various celestial
phenomena including the motions of the planets.[23][24] Venus, Mercury and the outer planets
Mars, Jupiter and Saturn were all identified by Babylonian astronomers. These would remain
the only known planets until the invention of the telescope in early modern times.[25]

Greco-Roman astronomy
See also: Greek astronomy
Ptolemy's 7 planetary spheres
1
Moon

2
Mercury

3
Venus

4
Sun

5
Mars

6
Jupiter

7
Saturn

The ancient Greeks initially did not attach as much significance to the planets as the
Babylonians. The Pythagoreans, in the 6th and 5th centuries BC appear to have developed
their own independent planetary theory, which consisted of the Earth, Sun, Moon, and planets
revolving around a "Central Fire" at the center of the Universe. Pythagoras or Parmenides is

said to have been the first to identify the evening star (Hesperos) and morning star
(Phosphoros) as one and the same (Aphrodite, Greek corresponding to Latin Venus).[26] In the
3rd century BC, Aristarchus of Samos proposed a heliocentric system, according to which
Earth and the planets revolved around the Sun. The geocentric system remained dominant
until the Scientific Revolution.
By the 1st century BC, during the Hellenistic period, the Greeks had begun to develop their
own mathematical schemes for predicting the positions of the planets. These schemes, which
were based on geometry rather than the arithmetic of the Babylonians, would eventually
eclipse the Babylonians' theories in complexity and comprehensiveness, and account for most
of the astronomical movements observed from Earth with the naked eye. These theories
would reach their fullest expression in the Almagest written by Ptolemy in the 2nd century
CE. So complete was the domination of Ptolemy's model that it superseded all previous works
on astronomy and remained the definitive astronomical text in the Western world for 13
centuries.[19][27] To the Greeks and Romans there were seven known planets, each presumed to
be circling Earth according to the complex laws laid out by Ptolemy. They were, in increasing
order from Earth (in Ptolemy's order): the Moon, Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, and
Saturn.[15][27][28]

India
Main articles: Indian astronomy and Hindu cosmology
In 499 CE, the Indian astronomer Aryabhata propounded a planetary model that explicitly
incorporated Earth's rotation about its axis, which he explains as the cause of what appears to
be an apparent westward motion of the stars. He also believed that the orbits of planets are
elliptical.[29] Aryabhata's followers were particularly strong in South India, where his
principles of the diurnal rotation of Earth, among others, were followed and a number of
secondary works were based on them.[30]
In 1500, Nilakantha Somayaji of the Kerala school of astronomy and mathematics, in his
Tantrasangraha, revised Aryabhata's model.[31] In his Aryabhatiyabhasya, a commentary on
Aryabhata's Aryabhatiya, he developed a planetary model where Mercury, Venus, Mars,
Jupiter and Saturn orbit the Sun, which in turn orbits Earth, similar to the Tychonic system
later proposed by Tycho Brahe in the late 16th century. Most astronomers of the Kerala school
who followed him accepted his planetary model.[31][32]

Medieval Muslim astronomy

Main articles: Astronomy in the medieval Islamic world and Cosmology in medieval Islam
In the 11th century, the transit of Venus was observed by Avicenna, who established that
Venus was, at least sometimes, below the Sun.[33] In the 12th century, Ibn Bajjah observed
"two planets as black spots on the face of the Sun", which was later identified as a transit of
Mercury and Venus by the Maragha astronomer Qotb al-Din Shirazi in the 13th century.[34] Ibn
Bajjah could not have observed a transit of Venus, because none occurred in his lifetime.[35]

European Renaissance

Renaissance planets,
c. 1543 to 1610 and c. 1680 to 1781
1
Mercury

2
Venus

3
Earth

4
Mars

5
Jupiter

6
Saturn

See also: Heliocentrism

With the advent of the Scientific Revolution, use of the term "planet" changed from
something that moved across the sky (in relation to the star field); to a body that orbited Earth
(or that were believed to do so at the time); and by the 18th century to something that directly
orbited the Sun when the heliocentric model of Copernicus, Galileo and Kepler gained sway.
Thus, Earth became included in the list of planets,[36] whereas the Sun and Moon were
excluded. At first, when the first satellites of Jupiter and Saturn were discovered in the 17th
century, the terms "planet" and "satellite" were used interchangeably although the latter
would gradually become more prevalent in the following century.[37] Until the mid-19th
century, the number of "planets" rose rapidly because any newly discovered object directly
orbiting the Sun was listed as a planet by the scientific community.

19th century
Eleven planets, 18071845
1
Mercury

2
Venus

3
Earth

4
Mars

5
Vesta

6
Juno

7
Ceres

8
Pallas

9
Jupiter

10
Saturn

11
Uranus

In the 19th century astronomers began to realize that recently discovered bodies that had been
classified as planets for almost half a century (such as Ceres, Pallas, and Vesta) were very
different from the traditional ones. These bodies shared the same region of space between
Mars and Jupiter (the asteroid belt), and had a much smaller mass; as a result they were
reclassified as "asteroids". In the absence of any formal definition, a "planet" came to be
understood as any "large" body that orbited the Sun. Because there was a dramatic size gap
between the asteroids and the planets, and the spate of new discoveries seemed to have ended
after the discovery of Neptune in 1846, there was no apparent need to have a formal
definition.[38]

20th century
Planets 18541930, Solar planets 2006present
1
Mercury

2
Venus

3
Earth

4
Mars

5
Jupiter

6
Saturn

7
Uranus

8
Neptune

In the 20th century, Pluto was discovered. After initial observations led to the belief it was
larger than Earth,[39] the object was immediately accepted as the ninth planet. Further
monitoring found the body was actually much smaller: in 1936, Raymond Lyttleton suggested
that Pluto may be an escaped satellite of Neptune,[40] and Fred Whipple suggested in 1964 that
Pluto may be a comet.[41] As it was still larger than all known asteroids and seemingly did not
exist within a larger population,[42] it kept its status until 2006.
(Solar) planets 19302006
1
Mercury

2
Venus

3
Earth

4
Mars

5
Jupiter

6
Saturn

7
Uranus

8
Neptune

9
Pluto

In 1992, astronomers Aleksander Wolszczan and Dale Frail announced the discovery of
planets around a pulsar, PSR B1257+12.[43] This discovery is generally considered to be the
first definitive detection of a planetary system around another star. Then, on October 6, 1995,
Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz of the Geneva Observatory announced the first definitive
detection of an exoplanet orbiting an ordinary main-sequence star (51 Pegasi).[44]
The discovery of extrasolar planets led to another ambiguity in defining a planet: the point at
which a planet becomes a star. Many known extrasolar planets are many times the mass of
Jupiter, approaching that of stellar objects known as brown dwarfs. Brown dwarfs are
generally considered stars due to their ability to fuse deuterium, a heavier isotope of
hydrogen. Although objects more massive than 75 times that of Jupiter fuse hydrogen, objects
of only 13 Jupiter masses can fuse deuterium. Deuterium is quite rare, and most brown dwarfs
would have ceased fusing deuterium long before their discovery, making them effectively
indistinguishable from supermassive planets.[45]

21st century
With the discovery during the latter half of the 20th century of more objects within the Solar
System and large objects around other stars, disputes arose over what should constitute a
planet. There were particular disagreements over whether an object should be considered a
planet if it was part of a distinct population such as a belt, or if it was large enough to generate
energy by the thermonuclear fusion of deuterium.
A growing number of astronomers argued for Pluto to be declassified as a planet, because
many similar objects approaching its size had been found in the same region of the Solar
System (the Kuiper belt) during the 1990s and early 2000s. Pluto was found to be just one
small body in a population of thousands.
Some of them, such as Quaoar, Sedna, and Eris, were heralded in the popular press as the
tenth planet, failing to receive widespread scientific recognition. The announcement of Eris in
2005, an object then thought of as 27% more massive than Pluto, created the necessity and
public desire for an official definition of a planet.
Acknowledging the problem, the IAU set about creating the definition of planet, and produced
one in August 2006. The number of planets dropped to the eight significantly larger bodies
that had cleared their orbit (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and

Neptune), and a new class of dwarf planets was created, initially containing three objects
(Ceres, Pluto and Eris).[46]
Extrasolar planets
There is no official definition of extrasolar planets. In 2003, the International Astronomical
Union (IAU) Working Group on Extrasolar Planets issued a position statement, but this
position statement was never proposed as an official IAU resolution and was never voted on
by IAU members. The positions statement incorporates the following guidelines, mostly
focused upon the boundary between planets and brown dwarfs:[2]
1. Objects with true masses below the limiting mass for thermonuclear fusion of
deuterium (currently calculated to be 13 times the mass of Jupiter for objects with the
same isotopic abundance as the Sun[47]) that orbit stars or stellar remnants are "planets"
(no matter how they formed). The minimum mass and size required for an extrasolar
object to be considered a planet should be the same as that used in the Solar System.
2. Substellar objects with true masses above the limiting mass for thermonuclear fusion
of deuterium are "brown dwarfs", no matter how they formed or where they are
located.
3. Free-floating objects in young star clusters with masses below the limiting mass for
thermonuclear fusion of deuterium are not "planets", but are "sub-brown dwarfs" (or
whatever name is most appropriate).
This working definition has since been widely used by astronomers when publishing
discoveries of exoplanets in academic journals.[48] Although temporary, it remains an effective
working definition until a more permanent one is formally adopted. It does not address the
dispute over the lower mass limit,[49] and so it steered clear of the controversy regarding
objects within the Solar System. This definition also makes no comment on the planetary
status of objects orbiting brown dwarfs, such as 2M1207b.
One definition of a sub-brown dwarf is a planet-mass object that formed through cloud
collapse rather than accretion. This formation distinction between a sub-brown dwarf and a
planet is not universally agreed upon; astronomers are divided into two camps as whether to
consider the formation process of a planet as part of its division in classification.[50] One
reason for the dissent is that often it may not be possible to determine the formation process.
For example, a planet formed by accretion around a star may get ejected from the system to
become free-floating, and likewise a sub-brown dwarf that formed on its own in a star cluster
through cloud collapse may get captured into orbit around a star.
The 13 Jupiter-mass cutoff represents an average mass rather than a precise threshold value.
Large objects will fuse most of their deuterium and smaller ones will fuse only a little, and the
13 MJ value is somewhere in between. In fact, calculations show that an object fuses 50% of
its initial deuterium content when the total mass ranges between 12 and 14 MJ.[51] The amount
of deuterium fused depends not only on mass but also on the composition of the object, on the
amount of helium and deuterium present.[52] The Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia includes
objects up to 25 Jupiter masses, saying, "The fact that there is no special feature around 13 MJ
in the observed mass spectrum reinforces the choice to forget this mass limit."[53] The
Exoplanet Data Explorer includes objects up to 24 Jupiter masses with the advisory: "The 13

Jupiter-mass distinction by the IAU Working Group is physically unmotivated for planets
with rocky cores, and observationally problematic due to the sin i ambiguity."[54] The NASA
Exoplanet Archive includes objects with a mass (or minimum mass) equal to or less than 30
Jupiter masses.[55]
Another criterion for separating planets and brown dwarfs, rather than deuterium fusion,
formation process or location, is whether the core pressure is dominated by coulomb pressure
or electron degeneracy pressure.[56][57]
2006 IAU definition of planet
Main article: IAU definition of planet

Euler diagram showing the types of bodies in the Solar System.

The matter of the lower limit was addressed during the 2006 meeting of the IAU's General
Assembly. After much debate and one failed proposal, 232 members of the 10,000 member
assembly, who nevertheless constituted a large majority of those remaining at the meeting,
voted to pass a resolution. The 2006 resolution defines planets within the Solar System as
follows:[1]
A "planet" [1] is a celestial body that (a) is in orbit around the Sun, (b) has sufficient mass for
its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium
(nearly round) shape, and (c) has cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit.
[1] The eight planets are: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.
Under this definition, the Solar System is considered to have eight planets. Bodies that fulfill
the first two conditions but not the third (such as Ceres, Pluto, and Eris) are classified as
dwarf planets, provided they are not also natural satellites of other planets. Originally an IAU
committee had proposed a definition that would have included a much larger number of
planets as it did not include (c) as a criterion.[58] After much discussion, it was decided via a
vote that those bodies should instead be classified as dwarf planets.[59]

This definition is based in theories of planetary formation, in which planetary embryos

initially clear their orbital neighborhood of other smaller objects. As described by astronomer
Steven Soter:[60]
"The end product of secondary disk accretion is a small number of relatively large
bodies (planets) in either non-intersecting or resonant orbits, which prevent collisions
between them. Minor planets and comets, including KBOs [Kuiper belt objects], differ
from planets in that they can collide with each other and with planets."
Because it is not presently possible to determine directly whether an exoplanet has cleared its
orbit, a mathematical criterion has been proposed that approximately determines whether a
planet can clear its orbit during the lifetime of its star, based on the mass of the planet, its
semimajor axis, and the mass of its star.[61] This formula produces a value that is greater than
one for planets. The eight known planets and all known exoplanets have values above 100,
while Ceres, Pluto, and Eris have values of 0.1 or less. Objects with values of 1 or more are
also expected to be approximately spherical.[62]

Objects formerly considered planets

The table below lists Solar System bodies once considered to be planets.

Sun

Current
Notes
classification
Classified as classical planets (Ancient Greek
Star

Moon

Moon

Io, Europa, Ganymede,

and Callisto

Moons

Body

Titan,[e] Iapetus,[f] Rhea,[f]

Moons
Tethys,[g] and Dione[g]

, wanderers) in classical antiquity and

medieval Europe, in accordance with the nowdisproved geocentric model.[63]
The four largest moons of Jupiter, known as the
Galilean moons after their discoverer Galileo Galilei.
He referred to them as the "Medicean Planets" in
honor of his patron, the Medici family. They were
known as secondary planets.[64]
Five of Saturn's larger moons, discovered by
Christiaan Huygens and Giovanni Domenico Cassini.
As with Jupiter's major moons, they were known as
secondary planets.[64]
Regarded as planets from their discoveries between
1801 and 1807 until they were reclassified as
asteroids during the 1850s.[66]

Pallas, Juno, and Vesta

Asteroids

Ceres

Dwarf planet and

Ceres was subsequently classified as a dwarf planet in
asteroid
2006.

Astraea, Hebe, Iris,

Flora, Metis, Hygiea,
Parthenope, Victoria,
Egeria, Irene, Eunomia
Pluto

More asteroids, discovered between 1845 and 1851.

The rapidly expanding list of bodies between Mars
Asteroids
and Jupiter prompted their reclassification as
asteroids, which was widely accepted by 1854. [67]
Dwarf planet and The first known trans-Neptunian object (i.e. minor
planet with a semi-major axis beyond Neptune).
Kuiper belt
Regarded as a planet from its discovery in 1930 until
object
it was reclassified as a dwarf planet in 2006.

Beyond the scientific community, Pluto still holds cultural significance for many in the
general public due to its historical classification as a planet from 1930 to 2006.[68] A few
astronomers, such as Alan Stern, consider dwarf planets and the larger moons to be planets,
based on a purely geophysical definition of planet.[69]

Mythology and naming

See also: Weekday names and Naked-eye planet

The Greek gods of Olympus, after whom the Solar System's Roman names of the planets are
derived
The names for the planets in the Western world are derived from the naming practices of the
Romans, which ultimately derive from those of the Greeks and the Babylonians. In ancient
Greece, the two great luminaries the Sun and the Moon were called Helios and Selene; the
farthest planet (Saturn) was called Phainon, the shiner; followed by Phaethon (Jupiter),
"bright"; the red planet (Mars) was known as Pyroeis, the "fiery"; the brightest (Venus) was
known as Phosphoros, the light bringer; and the fleeting final planet (Mercury) was called
Stilbon, the gleamer. The Greeks also made each planet sacred to one among their pantheon of
gods, the Olympians: Helios and Selene were the names of both planets and gods; Phainon
was sacred to Cronus, the Titan who fathered the Olympians; Phaethon was sacred to Zeus,
Cronus's son who deposed him as king; Pyroeis was given to Ares, son of Zeus and god of
war; Phosphoros was ruled by Aphrodite, the goddess of love; and Hermes, messenger of the
gods and god of learning and wit, ruled over Stilbon.[19]
The Greek practice of grafting of their gods' names onto the planets was almost certainly
borrowed from the Babylonians. The Babylonians named Phosphoros after their goddess of
love, Ishtar; Pyroeis after their god of war, Nergal, Stilbon after their god of wisdom Nabu,
and Phaethon after their chief god, Marduk.[70] There are too many concordances between
Greek and Babylonian naming conventions for them to have arisen separately.[19] The
translation was not perfect. For instance, the Babylonian Nergal was a god of war, and thus
the Greeks identified him with Ares. Unlike Ares, Nergal was also god of pestilence and the
underworld.[71]
Today, most people in the western world know the planets by names derived from the
Olympian pantheon of gods. Although modern Greeks still use their ancient names for the
planets, other European languages, because of the influence of the Roman Empire and, later,

the Catholic Church, use the Roman (Latin) names rather than the Greek ones. The Romans,
who, like the Greeks, were Indo-Europeans, shared with them a common pantheon under
different names but lacked the rich narrative traditions that Greek poetic culture had given
their gods. During the later period of the Roman Republic, Roman writers borrowed much of
the Greek narratives and applied them to their own pantheon, to the point where they became
virtually indistinguishable.[72] When the Romans studied Greek astronomy, they gave the
planets their own gods' names: Mercurius (for Hermes), Venus (Aphrodite), Mars (Ares),
Iuppiter (Zeus) and Saturnus (Cronus). When subsequent planets were discovered in the 18th
and 19th centuries, the naming practice was retained with Neptnus (Poseidon). Uranus is
unique in that it is named for a Greek deity rather than his Roman counterpart.
Some Romans, following a belief possibly originating in Mesopotamia but developed in
Hellenistic Egypt, believed that the seven gods after whom the planets were named took
hourly shifts in looking after affairs on Earth. The order of shifts went Saturn, Jupiter, Mars,
Sun, Venus, Mercury, Moon (from the farthest to the closest planet).[73] Therefore, the first day
was started by Saturn (1st hour), second day by Sun (25th hour), followed by Moon (49th
hour), Mars, Mercury, Jupiter and Venus. Because each day was named by the god that started
it, this is also the order of the days of the week in the Roman calendar after the Nundinal
cycle was rejected and still preserved in many modern languages.[74] In English, Saturday,
Sunday, and Monday are straightforward translations of these Roman names. The other days
were renamed after Tiw (Tuesday), Wden (Wednesday), Thunor (Thursday), and Frge
(Friday), the Anglo-Saxon gods considered similar or equivalent to Mars, Mercury, Jupiter,
and Venus, respectively.
Earth is the only planet whose name in English is not derived from Greco-Roman mythology.
Because it was only generally accepted as a planet in the 17th century,[36] there is no tradition
of naming it after a god. (The same is true, in English at least, of the Sun and the Moon,
though they are no longer generally considered planets.) The name originates from the 8th
century Anglo-Saxon word erda, which means ground or soil and was first used in writing as
the name of the sphere of Earth perhaps around 1300.[75][76] As with its equivalents in the other
Germanic languages, it derives ultimately from the Proto-Germanic word ertho, "ground",[76]
as can be seen in the English earth, the German Erde, the Dutch aarde, and the Scandinavian
jord. Many of the Romance languages retain the old Roman word terra (or some variation of
it) that was used with the meaning of "dry land" as opposed to "sea".[77] The non-Romance
languages use their own native words. The Greeks retain their original name, (Ge).
Non-European cultures use other planetary-naming systems. India uses a system based on the
Navagraha, which incorporates the seven traditional planets (Surya for the Sun, Chandra for
the Moon, and Budha, Shukra, Mangala, Br haspatiand Shani for Mercury, Venus, Mars,
Jupiter and Saturn) and the ascending and descending lunar nodes Rahu and Ketu. China and
the countries of eastern Asia historically subject to Chinese cultural influence (such as Japan,
Korea and Vietnam) use a naming system based on the five Chinese elements: water
(Mercury), metal (Venus), fire (Mars), wood (Jupiter) and earth (Saturn).[74] In traditional
Hebrew astronomy, the seven traditional planets have (for the most part) descriptive names the Sun is Hammah or "the hot one," the Moon is Levanah or "the white one," Venus
is Kokhav Nogah or "the bright planet," Mercury is Kokhav or "the planet"
(given its lack of distinguishing features), Mars is Ma'adim or "the red one," and Saturn
is Shabbatai or "the resting one" (in reference to its slow movement compared to the
other visible planets).[78] The odd one out is Jupiter, called Tzedeq or "justice." Steiglitz
suggests that this may be a euphemism for the original name of Kokhav Ba'al or

"Baal's planet," seen as idolatrous and euphemized in a similar manner to Ishbosheth from II
Samuel [78]

Formation
Main article: Nebular hypothesis

An artist's impression of protoplanetary disk

It is not known with certainty how planets are formed. The prevailing theory is that they are
formed during the collapse of a nebula into a thin disk of gas and dust. A protostar forms at
the core, surrounded by a rotating protoplanetary disk. Through accretion (a process of sticky
collision) dust particles in the disk steadily accumulate mass to form ever-larger bodies. Local
concentrations of mass known as planetesimals form, and these accelerate the accretion
process by drawing in additional material by their gravitational attraction. These
concentrations become ever denser until they collapse inward under gravity to form
protoplanets.[79] After a planet reaches a mass somewhat larger than Mars' mass, it begins to
accumulate an extended atmosphere,[80] greatly increasing the capture rate of the planetesimals
by means of atmospheric drag.[81][82] Depending on the accretion history of solids and gas, a
giant planet, an ice giant, or a terrestrial planet may result.[83][84][85]

Asteroid collision - building planets (artist concept).

When the protostar has grown such that it ignites to form a star, the surviving disk is removed
from the inside outward by photoevaporation, the solar wind, PoyntingRobertson drag and
other effects.[86][87] Thereafter there still may be many protoplanets orbiting the star or each
other, but over time many will collide, either to form a single larger planet or release material
for other larger protoplanets or planets to absorb.[88] Those objects that have become massive
enough will capture most matter in their orbital neighbourhoods to become planets.
Protoplanets that have avoided collisions may become natural satellites of planets through a
process of gravitational capture, or remain in belts of other objects to become either dwarf
planets or small bodies.

The energetic impacts of the smaller planetesimals (as well as radioactive decay) will heat up
the growing planet, causing it to at least partially melt. The interior of the planet begins to
differentiate by mass, developing a denser core.[89] Smaller terrestrial planets lose most of their
atmospheres because of this accretion, but the lost gases can be replaced by outgassing from
the mantle and from the subsequent impact of comets.[90] (Smaller planets will lose any
atmosphere they gain through various escape mechanisms.)
With the discovery and observation of planetary systems around stars other than the Sun, it is
becoming possible to elaborate, revise or even replace this account. The level of metallicity
an astronomical term describing the abundance of chemical elements with an atomic number
greater than 2 (helium)is now thought to determine the likelihood that a star will have
planets.[91] Hence, it is thought that a metal-rich population I star will likely have a more
substantial planetary system than a metal-poor, population II star.

Supernova remnant ejecta producing planet-forming material.

Solar System

Solar System sizes but not distances are to scale

The Sun and the eight planets of the Solar System

The inner planets, Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars

The four giant planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune against the Sun and some
sunspots
Main article: Solar System
See also: List of gravitationally rounded objects of the Solar System
There are eight planets in the Solar System, which are in increasing distance from the Sun:
1.

Mercury

2.

Venus

3.

Earth

4.

Mars

5.

Jupiter

6.

Saturn

7.

Uranus

8.

Neptune

Jupiter is the largest, at 318 Earth masses, whereas Mercury is the smallest, at 0.055 Earth
masses.
The planets of the Solar System can be divided into categories based on their composition:

Terrestrials: Planets that are similar to Earth, with bodies largely composed of rock:
Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars. At 0.055 Earth masses, Mercury is the smallest
terrestrial planet (and smallest planet) in the Solar System. Earth is the largest
terrestrial planet.

Giant planets (Jovians): Massive planets significantly more massive than the
terrestrials: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune.
o

Gas giants, Jupiter and Saturn, are giant planets primarily composed of
hydrogen and helium and are the most massive planets in the Solar System.
Jupiter, at 318 Earth masses, is the largest planet in the Solar System, and
Saturn is one third as massive, at 95 Earth masses.

Ice giants, Uranus and Neptune, are primarily composed of low-boiling-point

materials such as water, methane, and ammonia, with thick atmospheres of
hydrogen and helium. They have a significantly lower mass than the gas giants
(only 14 and 17 Earth masses).

Planetary attributes
Sem
i- Orbita Inclinat
Equator
Rotati Confir
maj
l
ion Orbital
ial Mass
on
med Axial Rin Atmosph
Name
or period to Sun's eccentri
[h]
diamete
period moons tilt gs
ere
axis (years) equator city
[i]
r[h]
(days)
(AU [h]
()
)

1.

Merc
ury

0.382

0.06 0.39 0.24

3.38

0.206

58.64

0.04 no minimal

2. Venus 0.949

0.82 0.72 0.62

3.86

0.007

243.
02

177.3
no CO2, N2
6

Earth
3. (a)

1.00

1.00 1.00 1.00

7.25

0.017

1.00

23.44
no

4. Mars

0.532

0.11 1.52 1.88

5.65

0.093

1.03

25.19
CO2, N2,
no

Ar

N2, O2,
Ar

Sem
i- Orbita Inclinat
Equator
Rotati Confir
maj
l
ion Orbital
ial Mass
on
med Axial Rin Atmosph
Name
or period to Sun's eccentri
diamete [h]
period moons tilt gs
ere
axis (years) equator city
[h]
[i]
r
(days)
(AU [h]
()
)

5.

Jupite
11.209 317.8 5.20 11.86
r

6.09

0.048

0.41

67

3.13 yes

H2, He

6.

Satur
n

95.2 9.54 29.46

5.51

0.054

0.43

62

26.73
yes

H2, He

7.

Uranu
4.007
s

14.6

19.2
84.01
2

6.48

0.047

0.72

27

97.77
H2, He,
yes

CH4

8.

Neptu
3.883
ne

17.2

30.0
164.8
6

6.43

0.009

0.67

14

28.32
H2, He,
yes

CH4

9.449

Color legend:
terrestrial planets
absolute values in article Earth

gas giants

ice giants (both are giant planets). (a)Find

Exoplanets
Main article: Exoplanet

Exoplanets, by year of discovery, through September 2014.

An exoplanet (extrasolar planet) is a planet outside the Solar System. More than 2000 such
planets have been discovered[93][94][95] (3,437 planets in 2,571 planetary systems including 585
multiple planetary systems as of 20 June 2016).[4]
In early 1992, radio astronomers Aleksander Wolszczan and Dale Frail announced the
discovery of two planets orbiting the pulsar PSR 1257+12.[43] This discovery was confirmed,
and is generally considered to be the first definitive detection of exoplanets. These pulsar

planets are believed to have formed from the unusual remnants of the supernova that
produced the pulsar, in a second round of planet formation, or else to be the remaining rocky
cores of giant planets that survived the supernova and then decayed into their current orbits.

Sizes of Kepler Planet Candidates based on 2,740 candidates orbiting 2,036 stars as of 4
November 2013 (NASA).
The first confirmed discovery of an extrasolar planet orbiting an ordinary main-sequence star
occurred on 6 October 1995, when Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz of the University of
Geneva announced the detection of an exoplanet around 51 Pegasi. From then until the Kepler
mission most known extrasolar planets were gas giants comparable in mass to Jupiter or
larger as they were more easily detected. The catalog of Kepler candidate planets consists
mostly of planets the size of Neptune and smaller, down to smaller than Mercury.
There are types of planets that do not exist in the Solar System: super-Earths and miniNeptunes, which could be rocky like Earth or a mixture of volatiles and gas like Neptunea
radius of 1.75 times that of Earth is a possible dividing line between the two types of planet.
[96]
There are hot Jupiters that orbit very close to their star and may evaporate to become
chthonian planets, which are the leftover cores. Another possible type of planet is carbon
planets, which form in systems with a higher proportion of carbon than in the Solar System.
A 2012 study, analyzing gravitational microlensing data, estimates an average of at least 1.6
bound planets for every star in the Milky Way.[10]
On December 20, 2011, the Kepler Space Telescope team reported the discovery of the first
Earth-size exoplanets, Kepler-20e[5] and Kepler-20f,[6] orbiting a Sun-like star, Kepler-20.[7][8][9]
Around 1 in 5 Sun-like[b] stars have an "Earth-sized"[c] planet in the habitable[d] zone, so the
nearest would be expected to be within 12 light-years distance from Earth.[97][98] The frequency
of occurrence of such terrestrial planets is one of the variables in the Drake equation, which
estimates the number of intelligent, communicating civilizations that exist in the Milky Way.
[99]

There are exoplanets that are much closer to their parent star than any planet in the Solar
System is to the Sun, and there are also exoplanets that are much farther from their star.
Mercury, the closest planet to the Sun at 0.4 AU, takes 88-days for an orbit, but the shortest
known orbits for exoplanets take only a few hours, e.g. Kepler-70b. The Kepler-11 system has
five of its planets in shorter orbits than Mercury's, all of them much more massive than

Mercury. Neptune is 30 AU from the Sun and takes 165 years to orbit, but there are
exoplanets that are hundreds of AU from their star and take more than a thousand years to
orbit, e.g. 1RXS1609 b.
The next few space telescopes to study exoplanets are expected to be Gaia launched in
December 2013, CHEOPS in 2017, TESS in 2017, and the James Webb Space Telescope in
2018.

Planetary-mass objects

Artist's impression of a super-Jupiter around the brown dwarf 2M1207.[100]

See also: List of gravitationally rounded objects of the Solar System
A planetary-mass object (PMO), planemo[101] /plnmo/, or planetary body is a celestial
object with a mass that falls within the range of the definition of a planet: massive enough to
achieve hydrostatic equilibrium (to be rounded under its own gravity), but not enough to
sustain core fusion like a star.[102][103] By definition, all planets are planetary-mass objects, but
the purpose of this term is to refer to objects that do not conform to typical expectations for a
planet. These include dwarf planets, which are rounded by their own gravity but not massive
enough to clear their own orbit, the larger moons, and free-floating planemos, which may
have been ejected from a system (rogue planets) or formed through cloud-collapse rather than
accretion (sometimes called sub-brown dwarfs).

Rogue planets
Main article: Rogue planet
Several computer simulations of stellar and planetary system formation have suggested that
some objects of planetary mass would be ejected into interstellar space.[104] Some scientists
have argued that such objects found roaming in deep space should be classed as "planets",
although others have suggested that they should be called low-mass brown dwarfs.[105][106]

Sub-brown dwarfs

Main article: Sub-brown dwarf

Stars form via the gravitational collapse of gas clouds, but smaller objects can also form via
cloud-collapse. Planetary-mass objects formed this way are sometimes called sub-brown
dwarfs. Sub-brown dwarfs may be free-floating such as Cha 110913-773444[105] and OTS 44,
[107]
or orbiting a larger object such as 2MASS J04414489+2301513.
Binary systems of sub-brown dwarfs are theoretically possible; Oph 162225-240515 was
initially thought to be a binary system of a brown dwarf of 14 Jupiter masses and a sub-brown
dwarf of 7 Jupiter masses, but further observations revised the estimated masses upwards to
greater than 13 Jupiter masses, making them brown dwarfs according to the IAU working
definitions.[108][109][110]

Former stars
In close binary star systems one of the stars can lose mass to a heavier companion. Accretionpowered pulsars may drive mass loss. The shrinking star can then become a planetary-mass
object. An example is a Jupiter-mass object orbiting the pulsar PSR J1719-1438.[111] These
shrunken white dwarfs may become a helium planet or carbon planet.

Satellite planets and belt planets

Some large satellites are of similar size or larger than the planet Mercury, e.g. Jupiter's
Galilean moons and Titan. Alan Stern has argued that location should not matter and that only
geophysical attributes should be taken into account in the definition of a planet, and proposes
the term satellite planet for a planet-sized satellite. Likewise, dwarf planets in the asteroid belt
and Kuiper belt should be considered planets according to Stern.[69]

Captured planets
Free-floating planets in stellar clusters have similar velocities to the stars and so can be
recaptured. They are typically captured into wide orbits between 100 and 105 AU. The capture
efficiency decreases with increasing cluster volume, and for a given cluster size it increases
with the host/primary mass. It is almost independent of the planetary mass. Single and
multiple planets could be captured into arbitrary unaligned orbits, non-coplanar with each
other or with the stellar host spin, or pre-existing planetary system.[112]

Attributes
Although each planet has unique physical characteristics, a number of broad commonalities
do exist among them. Some of these characteristics, such as rings or natural satellites, have
only as yet been observed in planets in the Solar System, whereas others are also commonly
observed in extrasolar planets.

Dynamic characteristics
Orbit
Main articles: Orbit and Orbital elements

See also: Kepler's laws of planetary motion

The orbit of the planet Neptune compared to that of Pluto. Note the elongation of Pluto's orbit
in relation to Neptune's (eccentricity), as well as its large angle to the ecliptic (inclination).
According to current definitions, all planets must revolve around stars; thus, any potential
"rogue planets" are excluded. In the Solar System, all the planets orbit the Sun in the same
direction as the Sun rotates (counter-clockwise as seen from above the Sun's north pole). At
least one extrasolar planet, WASP-17b, has been found to orbit in the opposite direction to its
star's rotation.[113] The period of one revolution of a planet's orbit is known as its sidereal
period or year.[114] A planet's year depends on its distance from its star; the farther a planet is
from its star, not only the longer the distance it must travel, but also the slower its speed,
because it is less affected by its star's gravity. No planet's orbit is perfectly circular, and hence
the distance of each varies over the course of its year. The closest approach to its star is called
its periastron (perihelion in the Solar System), whereas its farthest separation from the star is
called its apastron (aphelion). As a planet approaches periastron, its speed increases as it
trades gravitational potential energy for kinetic energy, just as a falling object on Earth
accelerates as it falls; as the planet reaches apastron, its speed decreases, just as an object
thrown upwards on Earth slows down as it reaches the apex of its trajectory.[115]
Each planet's orbit is delineated by a set of elements:

The eccentricity of an orbit describes how elongated a planet's orbit is. Planets with
low eccentricities have more circular orbits, whereas planets with high eccentricities
have more elliptical orbits. The planets in the Solar System have very low
eccentricities, and thus nearly circular orbits.[114] Comets and Kuiper belt objects (as
well as several extrasolar planets) have very high eccentricities, and thus exceedingly
elliptical orbits.[116][117]

Illustration of the semi-major axis

The semi-major axis is the distance from a planet to the half-way point along the
longest diameter of its elliptical orbit (see image). This distance is not the same as its
apastron, because no planet's orbit has its star at its exact centre.[114]

The inclination of a planet tells how far above or below an established reference plane
its orbit lies. In the Solar System, the reference plane is the plane of Earth's orbit,
called the ecliptic. For extrasolar planets, the plane, known as the sky plane or plane

of the sky, is the plane perpendicular to the observer's line of sight from Earth.[118] The
eight planets of the Solar System all lie very close to the ecliptic; comets and Kuiper
belt objects like Pluto are at far more extreme angles to it.[119] The points at which a
planet crosses above and below its reference plane are called its ascending and
descending nodes.[114] The longitude of the ascending node is the angle between the
reference plane's 0 longitude and the planet's ascending node. The argument of
periapsis (or perihelion in the Solar System) is the angle between a planet's ascending
node and its closest approach to its star.[114]
Axial tilt
Main article: Axial tilt

Earth's axial tilt is about 23.4. It oscillates between 22.1 and 24.5 on a 41,000-year cycle
and is currently decreasing.
Planets also have varying degrees of axial tilt; they lie at an angle to the plane of their stars'
equators. This causes the amount of light received by each hemisphere to vary over the course
of its year; when the northern hemisphere points away from its star, the southern hemisphere
points towards it, and vice versa. Each planet therefore has seasons, changes to the climate
over the course of its year. The time at which each hemisphere points farthest or nearest from
its star is known as its solstice. Each planet has two in the course of its orbit; when one
hemisphere has its summer solstice, when its day is longest, the other has its winter solstice,
when its day is shortest. The varying amount of light and heat received by each hemisphere
creates annual changes in weather patterns for each half of the planet. Jupiter's axial tilt is
very small, so its seasonal variation is minimal; Uranus, on the other hand, has an axial tilt so
extreme it is virtually on its side, which means that its hemispheres are either perpetually in
sunlight or perpetually in darkness around the time of its solstices.[120] Among extrasolar
planets, axial tilts are not known for certain, though most hot Jupiters are believed to have
negligible to no axial tilt as a result of their proximity to their stars.[121]
Rotation
The planets rotate around invisible axes through their centres. A planet's rotation period is
known as a stellar day. Most of the planets in the Solar System rotate in the same direction as
they orbit the Sun, which is counter-clockwise as seen from above the Sun's north pole, the
exceptions being Venus[122] and Uranus,[123] which rotate clockwise, though Uranus's extreme
axial tilt means there are differing conventions on which of its poles is "north", and therefore
whether it is rotating clockwise or anti-clockwise.[124] Regardless of which convention is used,
Uranus has a retrograde rotation relative to its orbit.

The rotation of a planet can be induced by several factors during formation. A net angular
momentum can be induced by the individual angular momentum contributions of accreted
objects. The accretion of gas by the giant planets can also contribute to the angular
momentum. Finally, during the last stages of planet building, a stochastic process of
protoplanetary accretion can randomly alter the spin axis of the planet.[125] There is great
variation in the length of day between the planets, with Venus taking 243 days to rotate, and
the giant planets only a few hours.[126] The rotational periods of extrasolar planets are not
known. However, for "hot" Jupiters, their proximity to their stars means that they are tidally
locked (i.e., their orbits are in sync with their rotations). This means, they always show one
face to their stars, with one side in perpetual day, the other in perpetual night.[127]
Orbital clearing
Main article: Clearing the neighbourhood
The defining dynamic characteristic of a planet is that it has cleared its neighborhood. A
planet that has cleared its neighborhood has accumulated enough mass to gather up or sweep
away all the planetesimals in its orbit. In effect, it orbits its star in isolation, as opposed to
sharing its orbit with a multitude of similar-sized objects. This characteristic was mandated as
part of the IAU's official definition of a planet in August, 2006. This criterion excludes such
planetary bodies as Pluto, Eris and Ceres from full-fledged planethood, making them instead
dwarf planets.[1] Although to date this criterion only applies to the Solar System, a number of
young extrasolar systems have been found in which evidence suggests orbital clearing is
taking place within their circumstellar discs.[128]

Physical characteristics
Mass
Main article: Planetary mass
A planet's defining physical characteristic is that it is massive enough for the force of its own
gravity to dominate over the electromagnetic forces binding its physical structure, leading to a
state of hydrostatic equilibrium. This effectively means that all planets are spherical or
spheroidal. Up to a certain mass, an object can be irregular in shape, but beyond that point,
which varies depending on the chemical makeup of the object, gravity begins to pull an object
towards its own centre of mass until the object collapses into a sphere.[129]
Mass is also the prime attribute by which planets are distinguished from stars. The upper mass
limit for planethood is roughly 13 times Jupiter's mass for objects with solar-type isotopic
abundance, beyond which it achieves conditions suitable for nuclear fusion. Other than the
Sun, no objects of such mass exist in the Solar System; but there are exoplanets of this size.
The 13-Jupiter-mass limit is not universally agreed upon and the Extrasolar Planets
Encyclopaedia includes objects up to 20 Jupiter masses,[130] and the Exoplanet Data Explorer
up to 24 Jupiter masses.[131]
The smallest known planet is PSR B1257+12A, one of the first extrasolar planets discovered,
which was found in 1992 in orbit around a pulsar. Its mass is roughly half that of the planet
Mercury.[4] The smallest known planet orbiting a main-sequence star other than the Sun is
Kepler-37b, with a mass (and radius) slightly higher than that of the Moon.

Internal differentiation
Main article: Planetary differentiation

Illustration of the interior of Jupiter, with a rocky core overlaid by a deep layer of metallic
hydrogen
Every planet began its existence in an entirely fluid state; in early formation, the denser,
heavier materials sank to the centre, leaving the lighter materials near the surface. Each
therefore has a differentiated interior consisting of a dense planetary core surrounded by a
mantle that either is or was a fluid. The terrestrial planets are sealed within hard crusts,[132] but
in the giant planets the mantle simply blends into the upper cloud layers. The terrestrial
planets have cores of elements such as iron and nickel, and mantles of silicates. Jupiter and
Saturn are believed to have cores of rock and metal surrounded by mantles of metallic
hydrogen.[133] Uranus and Neptune, which are smaller, have rocky cores surrounded by
mantles of water, ammonia, methane and other ices.[134] The fluid action within these planets'
cores creates a geodynamo that generates a magnetic field.[132]
Atmosphere
Main articles: Atmosphere and Extraterrestrial atmospheres
See also: Extraterrestrial skies

Earth's atmosphere
All of the Solar System planets except Mercury[135] have substantial atmospheres because their
gravity is strong enough to keep gases close to the surface. The larger giant planets are
massive enough to keep large amounts of the light gases hydrogen and helium, whereas the
smaller planets lose these gases into space.[136] The composition of Earth's atmosphere is
different from the other planets because the various life processes that have transpired on the
planet have introduced free molecular oxygen.[137]
Planetary atmospheres are affected by the varying insolation or internal energy, leading to the
formation of dynamic weather systems such as hurricanes, (on Earth), planet-wide dust storms
(on Mars), a greater-than-Earth-sized anticyclone on Jupiter (called the Great Red Spot), and
holes in the atmosphere (on Neptune).[120] At least one extrasolar planet, HD 189733 b, has

been claimed to have such a weather system, similar to the Great Red Spot but twice as large.
[138]

Hot Jupiters, due to their extreme proximities to their host stars, have been shown to be losing
their atmospheres into space due to stellar radiation, much like the tails of comets.[139][140]
These planets may have vast differences in temperature between their day and night sides that
produce supersonic winds,[141] although the day and night sides of HD 189733 b appear to
have very similar temperatures, indicating that that planet's atmosphere effectively
redistributes the star's energy around the planet.[138]
Magnetosphere
Main article: Magnetosphere

Earth's magnetosphere (diagram)

One important characteristic of the planets is their intrinsic magnetic moments, which in turn
give rise to magnetospheres. The presence of a magnetic field indicates that the planet is still
geologically alive. In other words, magnetized planets have flows of electrically conducting
material in their interiors, which generate their magnetic fields. These fields significantly
change the interaction of the planet and solar wind. A magnetized planet creates a cavity in the
solar wind around itself called magnetosphere, which the wind cannot penetrate. The
magnetosphere can be much larger than the planet itself. In contrast, non-magnetized planets
have only small magnetospheres induced by interaction of the ionosphere with the solar wind,
which cannot effectively protect the planet.[142]
Of the eight planets in the Solar System, only Venus and Mars lack such a magnetic field.[142]
In addition, the moon of Jupiter Ganymede also has one. Of the magnetized planets the
magnetic field of Mercury is the weakest, and is barely able to deflect the solar wind.
Ganymede's magnetic field is several times larger, and Jupiter's is the strongest in the Solar
System (so strong in fact that it poses a serious health risk to future manned missions to its
moons). The magnetic fields of the other giant planets are roughly similar in strength to that
of Earth, but their magnetic moments are significantly larger. The magnetic fields of Uranus
and Neptune are strongly tilted relative the rotational axis and displaced from the centre of the
planet.[142]
In 2004, a team of astronomers in Hawaii observed an extrasolar planet around the star HD
179949, which appeared to be creating a sunspot on the surface of its parent star. The team
hypothesized that the planet's magnetosphere was transferring energy onto the star's surface,
increasing its already high 7,760 C temperature by an additional 400 C.[143]

Secondary characteristics

Main articles: Natural satellite and Planetary ring

The rings of Saturn

Several planets or dwarf planets in the Solar System (such as Neptune and Pluto) have orbital
periods that are in resonance with each other or with smaller bodies (this is also common in
satellite systems). All except Mercury and Venus have natural satellites, often called "moons".
Earth has one, Mars has two, and the giant planets have numerous moons in complex
planetary-type systems. Many moons of the giant planets have features similar to those on the
terrestrial planets and dwarf planets, and some have been studied as possible abodes of life
(especially Europa).[144][145][146]
The four giant planets are also orbited by planetary rings of varying size and complexity. The
rings are composed primarily of dust or particulate matter, but can host tiny 'moonlets' whose
gravity shapes and maintains their structure. Although the origins of planetary rings is not
precisely known, they are believed to be the result of natural satellites that fell below their
parent planet's Roche limit and were torn apart by tidal forces.[147][148]
No secondary characteristics have been observed around extrasolar planets. The sub-brown
dwarf Cha 110913-773444, which has been described as a rogue planet, is believed to be
orbited by a tiny protoplanetary disc[105] and the sub-brown dwarf OTS 44 was shown to be
surrounded by a substantial protoplanetary disk of at least 10 Earth masses.[107]